Cr(VI) and phenol are toxic contaminants that need to be treated, and different methods have been researched to simultaneously remove these two contaminants from industrial wastewater. In this study, Cr(VI) was used as a novel Fenton-like catalyst in phenol degradation by H₂O₂. In the pH range of 3.0‒11.0, the degradation efficiency of phenol decreased with elevated pH. At pH = 3.0, 100 mg/L phenol was effectively degraded by 2 mmol/L Cr(VI) and 20 mmol/L H₂O₂. At pH = 7.0 and the same conditions as those of pH = 3.0, 79% of 100 mg/L phenol was removed within 6 h, which was an improvement in pH limitation compared with the Fe(II)-mediated Fenton reaction. Quenching experiments indicated that ^·OH generated from the catalysis of H₂O₂ by Cr(V) instead of Cr(VI) was the primary oxidant that degraded phenol. When pyrophosphate was added in the Cr(VI)/H₂O₂ system, complexes with the Cr(V) intermediate rapidly formed and inhibited H₂O₂ decomposition, implying that the decomposition of H₂O₂ to ^·OH was catalyzed by Cr(V) instead of Cr(VI). The presence of anions such as chloride and sulfate had insignificant effect on the degradation of phenol. TOC and UV analyses suggest that phenol could not be completely oxidized to CO₂ and H₂O, and the intermediates identified by high performance liquid chromatography further indicates that maleic acid and benzoquinone were intermediates which may be further degraded into short chain acids, primarily maleic, formic, acetic, and oxalic acids, and eventually into CO₂ and H₂O. Considering that more than 50% Cr(VI) can also be removed during this process, the Cr(VI)/H₂O₂ system is more appropriate for the simultaneous removal of Cr(VI) and phenol contaminants from industrial wastewater.

In this study, Pd-Mg(Al)-LDH/γ-Al₂O₃ and Pd-Mg(Al)Zr-LDH/γ-Al₂O₃ precursors were synthesized by impregnating Na₂PdCl₄ on Mg(Al)-LDH/γ-Al₂O₃ and Mg(Al)Zr-LDH/γ-Al₂O₃, and then the precursors were calcinated and reduced to obtain Pd-Mg(Al)-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃ and Pd-Mg(Al)Zr-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts. Compared with Pd/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst, the hydrogenation efficiency of Pd-Mg(Al)-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃ and Pd-Mg(Al)Zr-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃ increased by 15.7% and 24.0%, respectively. Moreover, the stability of Pd-Mg(Al)Zr-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst was also higher than that of Pd/γ-Al₂O₃. After four runs, the hydrogenation efficiency of Pd/γ-Al₂O₃ decreased from 12.1 to 10.0 g/L, while that of Pd-Mg(Al)Zr-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃ decreased from 15.0 to 14.3 g/L. The active aquinones selectivities of all catalysts were almost 99%. The structures of the catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N₂ adsorption–desorption, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), CO chemisorption analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), temperature-programmed reduction with hydrogen (H₂-TPR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicate that the improved catalytic performance is attributed to the stronger interaction between Pd and Mg(Al)Zr-MMO/γ-Al₂O₃, smaller Pd particle size and higher Pd dispersion. This work develops an effective method to synthesize highly dispersed Pd nanoparticles based on the layered double hydroxides (LDHs) precursor.

Oil spills result in tremendous damage to the environment and ecosystem. In this study, several p-alkoxybenzoyl-based gelators (1, 2a, 2b, 2c, 3) synthesized from commercially available materials were designed for recovering oil from an oil–water mixture. Gels with remarkable gelation ability in various oils were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction to study the driving forces of self-assembly. Notably, these gelators could achieve the goal of recycling oil from the oil–water mixture at room temperature. In addition, gelator 2b could be used to remove toxic dyes from aqueous solutions with high efficiency. Therefore, these compounds were considered promising materials for oil spill recovery and dye removal due to their practicality and high efficiency.

SBA-15 silica was synthesized by adding normal paraffin and alkyl benzene as swelling agents and using a low-temperature gelation procedure. Pd was then impregnated on SBA-15, yielding a catalyst. Characterizations of the catalyst by X-ray diffraction, N₂ adsorption/desorption, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron micrographs, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, in situ FTIR, and a hydrogenation test of 2-ethyl-anthraquinone reveal that the addition of C₆‒C₉ normal paraffin and 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene could enlarge the pore diameter without a significant loss of ordered structure. Moreover, the length of SBA-15 pore channels decreased significantly. However, the sizes of Pd particles increase as the pore diameter is enlarged. The largest pore size (13.6 nm) and short length of pore channels (ca. 0.35 μm) are achieved by adding n-hexane. As a result, this catalyst exhibits the highest hydrogenation activity with an approximately 100% improvement, compared with a conventionally synthesized catalyst in the absence of a swelling agent.

With increasing research interests in the field of light-matter interactions, various methods have been developed for regulating nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. However, the design and synthesis of organic molecular materials for second-order nonlinear optics remain a great challenge because of the strict requirement of the materials to possess a noncentrosymmetric structure. In this work, two benzothiadiazole (BTD) derivatives referred to as BTD-H and BTD-F were synthesized, and their NLO properties in the crystalline states were studied. It was found that introducing fluorine into the BTD backbone effectively tuned the crystal packing styles of BTD derivatives to a noncentrosymmetric system for effective second-order NLO responses. Such a strategy to induce the noncentrosymmetric structure by introducing the fluorine atoms and halogen interactions may provide guidance for future engineering of organic NLO molecular materials.

Two novel sugar-conjugated 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) antineoplastic compounds were designed and synthesized to improve the selective drug uptake by targeting the tumor-specific glucose transporter (GLUT). The antitumor activity of these compounds was evaluated in four different human cancer cell lines: A549 (human lung cancer cell line), HT29 (human colorectal cancer cell line), H460 (human lung cancer cell line), and PC3 (human prostate cancer cell line). The sugar conjugates exhibited cytotoxicity similar to or higher than 5-FC and 1-hexylcarbamoyl-5-FC in A549, HT29, H460, and PC3. Furthermore, GLUT-mediated transport of the glycoconjugate was investigated with GLUT inhibitor-mediated cytotoxicity analysis in a GLUT-overexpressing HT29 cell line. The cell-killing potency of 5-FC glycoconjugate was found to depend significantly on the GLUT inhibitor, and the cellular uptake of molecules was regulated by GLUT-mediated transport. All the results demonstrate the potential advantages of glycoconjugation for Warburg effect-targeted drug design.

A cold-model vertical multi-tube circulating fluidized bed evaporator was designed and built to conduct a visualization study on the pressure drop of a liquid–solid two-phase flow and the corresponding particle distribution. Water and polyformaldehyde particle (POM) were used as the liquid and solid phases, respectively. The effects of operating parameters such as the amount of added particles, circulating flow rate, and particle size were systematically investigated. The results showed that the addition of the particles increased the pressure drop in the vertical tube bundle. The maximum pressure drop ratios were 18.65%, 21.15%, 18.00%, and 21.15% within the experimental range of the amount of added particles for POM1, POM2, POM3, and POM4, respectively. The pressure drop ratio basically decreased with the increase in the circulating flow rate but fluctuated with the increase in the amount of added particles and particle size. The difference in pressure drop ratio decreased with the increase in the circulating flow rate. As the amount of added particles increased, the difference in pressure drop ratio fluctuated at low circulating flow rate but basically decreased at high circulating flow rate. The pressure drop in the vertical tube bundle accounted for about 70% of the overall pressure drop in the up-flow heating chamber and was the main component of the overall pressure within the experimental range. Three-dimensional phase diagrams were established to display the variation ranges of the pressure drop and pressure drop ratio in the vertical tube bundle corresponding to the operating parameters. The research results can provide some reference for the application of the fluidized bed heat transfer technology in the industry.

To deeply clean oily wastewater, molecular sieve residues (MSRs) were sufficiently recycled and utilized due to their high specific surface area, porous structure, and outstanding adsorption property. Molding MSRs (MMSRs) were prepared by adding additives (starch, citric acid, and soluble glass) to MSRs and were then filled into a fixed bed for adsorbing and separating the oil in wastewater. Sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate was used to modify the MMSRs, and their adsorption property was also investigated. In addition, the MSRs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that MMSRs satisfied the filling requirement of fixed bed, and their dynamic adsorption capacity could reach 0.1854 mg g⁻¹. Furthermore, the static adsorption capacity of MMSRs achieved 1.7346 mg g⁻¹ in the optimum conditions, and the oil adsorption performance of modified MMSRs was further enhanced. Therefore, this work suggests that MSRs are promising alternatives in cleaning oily wastewater.